Opening Celebration for Spring SMC Museum of Art Exhibitions

Harmonia Rosales, The Decisive Moment, and Vignettes

Join the Museum of Art for the opening celebration of our three new exhibitions!

Harmonia Rosales: ΩA Omega Alpha 

Omega Alpha brings forward a visually enriched narrative that reimagines the traditional imagery of the black body in Christian art to empower lesser-known subjects through the canon of art history. Interweaving the oral histories and stories of Afro-Cuban religions, Rosales' depictions of the black body illuminate parallels in classical Western narratives while confronting the historical language of the Eurocentric male gaze. Referencing Greek, Roman, and European imagery, Omega Alpha inverts the narrative of how faith and orthodox-based stories are told, envisioning a new beginning rising from an end.

The Decisive Moment: PhotoUrbanism in San Francisco Bay, 1930s-1960s

Photographers interested in the ‘decisive moment’ often utilized the camera’s innate mechanical qualities to capture real-time experiences and explore modern art concepts of pattern, contrast, and light through the lens. The practice dominated mid-20th-century photography in the West. From the construction of the Bay Bridge to the revolutionaries of the Black Panthers, this exhibition features work by Ruth-Marion Baruch, John Gutmann, Pirkle Jones, Peter Stackpole, Brett Weston, and Max Yavno, whose photographs captured moments that came to define social urban history in the San Francisco Bay Area. This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Pier 24 and the Pilara Family Foundation.

Vignettes: Select Views of SMCMoA’s Permanent Collection

Vignettes bring forward curated windows into the permanent collection explored through themes, eras, and art history. Highlights include recent gifts into the permanent collection as well as the legacy collection of landscapes by William Keith. Featured works include modernist European prints by Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Ursula Fookes, Kathë Kollwitz, Marie Laurencin, and Jacques Villon: California waterways by Armin Hansen, Louis LaBrie, Bertha Stringer Lee, Gottardo Piazzoni, and Lundy Siegriest; pop art by Corita Kent and Andy Warhol; abstract expressionism by Seong Moy and Ruth Wall; and contemporary art by Joe Doyle, David Maxim, Diane Rosenblum, and Kal Spelletich.